"If 60's Was 90's" is a song by Beautiful People. Recorded in 1991, the song was first released on their album ''

If 60's Were 90's ''If 60's Were 90's'' is an album by techno-dance band Beautiful People featuring numerous samples from Jimi Hendrix songs. It spawned the hits "Rilly Groovy," which reached number three on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart and the title track "If ...

'' in 1992 but was not released as a single until 1994 after the success of "

Rilly Groovy "Rilly Groovy" is a 1993 song by Beautiful People. Released as the second single from their 1993 album ''If 60's Were 90's'', the song reached #3 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Background The song was written by group leader Du Kane and Luke ...

", charting at #74 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and #5 on the

Hot Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart.

Background

The song was written by group-leader Du Kane, with the programming done by Luke Baldry at Kane's mother's house in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. The song is a

downtempo Downtempo (or downbeat) is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may ...

cover version of

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

's "

If 6 Was 9 "If 6 Was 9" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was released on their second album '' Axis: Bold as Love'' (1967). It appeared on the soundtrack for the 1969 film ''Easy Rider'' and the soundtrack for ...

", sampling vocals and drums from said song and from ''

The Dick Cavett Show ''The Dick Cavett Show'' was the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including: * ABC daytime, (March 4, 1968–January 24, 1969) originally titled ''This Morning'' * ABC prime time, Tuesdays, We ...

'', and copious amounts of blues guitar from

Voodoo Chile "Voodoo Chile" ( ) is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded in 1968 for the third Jimi Hendrix Experience album ''Electric Ladyland''. It is based on the Muddy Waters blues song " Rollin' Stone", but with original lyrics and music. At 15 min ...

including its entire final solo at the end. The song has live drums with bandmembers augmenting the drum samples from "If 6 Was 9"; in a blog post, Baldry explained that the style of the song required the rhythm section to have been more rigid than the take they sampled, and to combat said woes the then-ubiquitous

Akai S1000 The Akai S1000 is a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz professional stereo digital sampler, released by Akai in 1988. The S1000 was among the first professional-quality 16-bit stereo samplers.Russ, Martin (2004). ''Sound Synthesis and Sampling''. Elsevier. p. ...

sampler was used to take a six-track sample of "If 6 Was 9"'s drums and drop it across the entire drum track. Multiple attempts were necessary because, according to Baldry, the Akai at the time was incapable of behaving as a stereo sampler, despite its claims to the contrary, because it didn't know how to lock the phase correlation and as a result every time a stereo sample was triggered the relationship between left and right was different. (This is fixed by turning on "note-on sample coherence", although this delays the note start.)

Music video

A music video was shot for the song. It was directed by Richard Heslop in March 1994 at his house in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

and

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road M ...

and features

Jimi Hendrix Jnr Jimi may refer to: * Jimi language (Cameroon) * Jimi language (Nigeria) * Jimi languages * Jimi system, the administration system of ancient China * Jimi River, in Papua New Guinea * Jimi Valley, in Papua New Guinea * Jimi District, in Papua New G ...

, a friend of the band, miming to the final solo.

References

{{authority control 1991 songs 1994 singles Beautiful People (band) songs Music videos directed by Richard Heslop